KHARTOUM: It was the crack of dawn when armed men in pick-up trucks stormed into a Khartoum protest camp, shooting and beating hundreds of Sudanese demonstrators on June 3.
"Everyone started running for their lives," said protester Akram, who gave only his first name fearing reprisals by authorities. "It was very brutal." Crowds of protesters camped outside the Khartoum army headquarters were violently dispersed that day by armed men in military fatigues, leaving dozens dead and hundreds wounded, according to doctors and witnesses.
They had been gathered at the complex since April, initially seeking the army´s help to oust longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir, and later to demand the generals hand power to a civilian administration.
Akram said some of the armed men wore police uniforms, while others were in military fatigues generally worn by the feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group. He said it was difficult to count how many they were, but the gunmen arrived in trucks and raided the sit-in from all sides.
"They first attacked us with batons and sticks," Akram, dressed in the same blue shirt he wore the day of the crackdown, told AFP at the home of a fellow protester in Khartoum. "At first the protesters were able to push back," he said, describing the early morning raid. "But then a bigger force wearing the uniform of the Rapid Support Forces stormed in and started shooting protesters who were standing at the barricades."
During the weeks-long sit-in, protesters had put up barricades at all entry points to the camp to prevent security forces from entering and attempting to clear them. But on June 3 the demonstrators were no match for the armed men.
"Blood for blood, we will not accept compensation," demonstrators chant, using a catchcry of the protest movement as they come under attack in footage Akram took on his phone during the assault.
The footage shows protesters, both women and men, running through the wide-open area, many of them bleeding as gunfire cracks the early morning calm. Akram said protesters hurled rocks at the armed men but failed to stop the assault. "I saw two female doctors beaten, dragged and stripped of their head scarves," he said, still shocked from the violence he witnessed. Other protesters with him at the Khartoum house left the room as he recalled the violence, unable to listen to the testimony.
Akram believes he is simply lucky to be alive. "Four times I was standing in a spot and someone behind me was shot," he said, adding that those trying to film the violence on their phones were primary targets.
He recalled watching people rushed into a makeshift field clinic at the protest camp. "There was blood gushing out from legs, stomachs and arms." With armed men in full control, Akram had no choice but to escape.